The present invention relates to a wire coil forming machine of the type that sequentially passes spools through a plurality of work stations where the spools are successively wrapped with conductive wire or otherwise treated in the manufacturing of such products. At least one of the stations includes a winding station which is adjacent to a final work station or termination point where the tail end of the wire is formed into a contact point for the electric coil.
In known devices, spools which are to be wound with a conductive wire are mounted on spool carriers which, in turn, are carried by a revolving turret head from work station to work station. In one device, such as is disclosed in German Pat. No. 2,018,813, clamping members are employed to handle the wire extending between the already wound spools. Thus, where a turret head has a plurality of spools mounted thereon, it has been necessary to provide clamping elements between two adjacent spindles or spools in order to complete the winding operation. Such finishing procedures usually involve the cutting of the wire and wrapping the tail end of the wire about one or more pegs which protrude from the body of the spindle or spool to thereby provide electric contact points, positive and negative, for each coil. In effecting the attachment of the tail ends of the wire to the contact pegs, it has been necessary to form a wire loop between adjacent spools to assure a sufficient supply of conductive wire for attachment to the connecting pegs of the two adjacent coils before the piece of wire is severed. The length of wire necessary for the winding around the pegs is taken from what is called the reserve loop.
A disadvantage of the known apparatus for effecting these manufacturing steps is the necessity of forming and maintaining the reserve loop between each two adjacent spools mounted on the turret head. That is to say, in the case of a machine with eight spindles, the same number of wire handling implements must be provided which materially increases the costs of the apparatus as well as the cost of operating such a machine.
The present invention provides an improved coil winding machine where the apparatus for producing the final windings on each spool are located only at the termination or last station of the turret head. In particular, the present invention provides clamping means of a novel type and operation at the final work station which will hold the wire and feed it to the final winding device as well as dispose of any remnants of wire remaining. Thus, use of the present invention will avoid the necessity of providing mechanisms for forming the reserve loop between each adjacent coil, thus materially reducing the cost of the machine and improving its manufacturing efficiency by eliminating the necessity of maintaining and adjusting the mechanisms thus eliminated which is of considerable importance where the machine is intended to handle wires having different diameters.